CVE-2026-33929: Apache PDFBox Examples: Path Traversal in PDFBox ExtractEmbeddedFiles Example Code

Severity: medium (CVSS 4.3 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-04-14 · updated 2026-10-26
Weakness: CWE-22

Description

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in Apache PDFBox Examples. This issue affects the ExtractEmbeddedFiles example in Apache PDFBox: from 2.0.24 through 2.0.36, from 3.0.0 through 3.0.7. Users are recommended to update to version 2.0.37 or 3.0.8 once available. Until then, they should apply the fix provided in GitHub PR 427. The ExtractEmbeddedFiles example contained a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) mentioned in CVE-2026-23907. However the change in the releases 2.0.36 and 3.0.7 is flawed because it doesn't consider the file path separator. Because of that, a user having writing rights on /home/ABC could be victim to a malicious PDF resulting in a write attempt to any path starting with /home/ABC, e.g. "/home/ABCDEF". Users who have copied this example into their production code should apply the mentioned change. The example has been changed accordingly and is available in the project repository.

Affected products

Apache Software Foundation Apache PDFBox: from 2.0.24 before 2.0.37; from 3.0.0 before 3.0.8 — fixed in 2.0.37, 3.0.8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache Software Foundation Apache PDFBox 2.0.37, 3.0.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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